Slide fastener

ABSTRACT

A link for a slide fastener, the links of which are secured to two binding strips by locking beads along the strip edges in grooves of the links. These grooves are formed on two opposite sides of each link and the two branches defined by each of the grooves are lengthwise slotted parallel to the grooves thereby forming two inner tabs and two outer tabs on each of said sides. The inner tabs are clamped against the beaded strip portion inserted into the grooves thereby locking the links to the respective strip. The outer tabs which are left unchanged conceal the deformation of the inner tabs so that the links present a smooth and ornamental appearance on the outside of the fastener.

United States Patent Urban [151 96,27 1 Feb. 2, 11072 [54] SLIDE FASTENER FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 983,043 6/1951 France ..24/205.l3 718,019 11/1954 GreatBritain ..24/205.l3

Primary Examiner-Bemard A. Gelak Attorney-Bane, Baxley & Spiecens [57] ABSTRACT A link for a slide fastener, the links of which are secured to two binding strips by locking beads along the strip edges in grooves of the links. These grooves are formed on two opposite sides of each link and the two branches defined by each of the grooves are lengthwise slotted parallel to the grooves thereby forming two inner tabs and two outer tabs on each of said sides. The inner tabs are clamped against the beaded strip portion inserted into the grooves thereby locking the links to the respective strip. The outer tabs which are left unchanged conceal the deformation of the inner tabs so that the links present a smooth and ornamental appearance on the outside of the fastener.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures "mama m2 INVENTOR. M9: T'ER Mean/v HM, y 5 m SLIDE FASTENER The invention relates to a slide fastener of the type commonly referred to as a zipper.

BACKGROUND There are known slide fasteners each of the links of which has a lateral groove into which is inserted the beaded edge of a binding strip. Each link is secured to one of the strips by clamping the beaded strip edge in the respective groove by deforming the link. The necessary deformation of the links can be easily effected when the links are made of a thermoplastic material. In the event the links are made of metal, it is customary practice to bend the two branches or shanks formed by each groove toward each other so that the strip material is clamped to the links.

For ornamental reasons it is generally desirable that the links retain a smooth and flat surface, at least on the exposed side of the slide fastener so that when the slide fastener is closed and its links intermesh with each other a continuous and smooth surface is presented. Such surface may be attractively decorated, or ornamentations such as synthetic stones, etc., may be secured thereto. As it is evident, deformation of the links due to clamping the same to the binding strips considerably detracts from the ornamental appearance of the slide fastener.

THE INVENTION It is a broad object of the invention to provide a novel and improved link for slide fasteners of the general kind above referred to which can be safely and economically secured to a beaded binding strip without requiring externally visible deformation of the links even though the same are made of metal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The afore-pointed-out objects, features and advantages of the invention, and other objects, features and advantages which will be more fully pointed out hereinafter, are obtained by slotting at least one of the shanks or branches formed by the grooves in two opposite sides of the links parallel to the length of the respective groove, thereby forming an inner tab adjacent to the groove and an outer tab. A thus-slotted link is clamped to a beaded binding strip by inserting the bead of the strip into the groove and then bending the inner tab and the respective shank or branch toward each other. As it is apparent, such bending will clamp the respective strip within the groove thereby locking the link to the strip.

As is further apparent, the side of the link of which the outer tab constitutes a part remains unchanged so that by using this side as the exposed side of the slide fastener the desired smooth and flat appearance of the row of intermeshing links is obtained.

The opposite side of the link is, of course, deformed but this side becomes the bottom or concealed side when the slide fastener is installed and, hence, the deformation thereof may be ignored.

In actual practice it has been found to be more economical to slot both branches or shanks on both sides of the link. Slotting of only one branch on one side would make difficult the various automatic sorting and positioning operations which are customarily carried out when the links of slide fasteners are locked to binding strips by the mass production techniques which are generally used for the production of slide fasteners.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the accompanying drawing, a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown by way of illustration and not by way of limitation.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a partly closed slide fastener or zipper;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a link on an enlarged scale; and

FIG. 3 is a section taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale.

Referring now to the figures more in detail, the slide fastener or zipper according to FIG. ll comprises two rows of links ll secured spaced apart by slightly more than the width of a link to binding strips 2. Each of the strips terminates in a lengthwise head 3; a second inner bead 3a may be provided. The slide fastener is operated by means of a conventional slide 15. The upper part of the slide fastener shows the links separated, that is, in the open position, and the lower part shows the links intermeshing with each other, that is, in the closed position. Each of the links has on one side a protrusion I6 and on the opposite side a dimple 17; each protrusion engages the respective dimple when the links intermesh, as it is indicated in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, each link I is shown by way of example in the form of a generally rectangular body. Grooves 4 on two opposite sides of the link body serve to receive the beads 3 of the binding strips. The top side 9 and the bottom side 9a of the link body are left continuous. Each of the two branches or shanks 5 formed by grooves 4 on the two sides of the link body is divided by a slot 6 thereby forming two inner tabs 7 and two outer tabs 8. As is shown, the outer tabs constitute parts of top and bottom sides 9 and 911 respectively.

To secure a link l to one of the strips, the respective bead 3 is inserted into the selected one of grooves 4. Referring to the right side of FIG. 3, the two inner tabs 7 on this side are bent toward each other so as to clamp the bead within the groove and thus the right-hand strip 2 to the link. FIG. 2 shows by way of illustration, the two right-hand tabs 7 bent toward each other. However, it should be understood that bending is in practice effected only when the links are actually clamped. The inner tabs 7 on the opposite side of the link are left in their straight positions so that the bead on the left-hand strip can enter the groove when the slide fastener is closed.

As shown in FIG. 1 and as also previously explained, the links are secured to the strips so spaced apart that each link can enter between two adjacent links on the other strip. This is indicated in FIG. 3 by showing on the left-hand side the two inner tabs 7 of the next adjacent link in the bent-together position and the tabs on the right side in the straight position.

As it is also apparent from FIG. 3, the top and bottom sides 9 and 9a remain unmarred by the bending of the inner tabs and are hence available for ornamentation. There are indicated by way of illustration ornaments 10 such as synthetic stones 10 secured to the top or exposed side 9 of each link.

While this invention has been described in detail with respect to a certain now-preferred example and embodiment of the invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art, after understanding the invention, that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and it is intended, therefore, to cover all such changes and modifications in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A slide fastener comprising:

a pair of binding strips in side-by-side disposition, the facing edges of said strips each terminating in a lengthwise bead; and

a plurality of links, each of said links having two opposite substantially parallel sides, each of said sides including a lengthwise groove of a depth and width sufficient to accommodate therein one of said beads,

said grooves defining two branches on each of said sides of the link, at least one of said branches on one side of the link being divided by a lengthwise slot to define an inner tab adjacent to the respective groove and an outer tab,

each of said links receiving alternately in spaced-apart relationship in one of its grooves the head of one of said strips thereby forming along each strip a row of links, the inner tab of each link in said rows being slanted toward the respective branch thereby holding the respective bead captive in the groove.

2. A link for a slide fastener of the kind having lengthwise beaded binding strips, said link comprising:

a link body having two mutually parallel sidewalls each including a groove extending across the respective sidewall for receiving therein the bead of one of the strips, one of the two branches as defined by said grooves on each of said sidewalls including a lengthwise slot parallel to the respective groove to define an inner tab adjacent to said groove and an outer tab on the respective sidewall, said link body having coupling portions for interlocking with 

1. A slide fastener comprising: a pair of binding strips in side-by-side disposition, the facing edges of said strips each terminating in a lengthwise bead; and a plurality of links, each of said links having two opposite substantially parallel sides, each of said sides including a lengthwise groove of a depth and width sufficient to accommodate therein one of said beads, said grooves defining two branches on each of said sides of the link, at least one of said branches on one side of the link being divided by a lengthwise slot to define an inner tab adjacent to the respective groove and an outer tab, each of said links receiving alternately in spaced-apart relationship in one of its grooves the bead of one of said strips thereby forming along each strip a row of links, the inner tab of each link in said rows being slanted toward the respective branch thereby holding the respective bead captive in the groove.
 2. A link for a slide fastener of the kind having lengthwise beaded binding strips, said link comprising: a link body having two mutually parallel sidewalls each including a groove extending across the respective sidewall for receiving therein the bead of one of the strips, one of the two branches as defined by said grooves on each of said sidewalls including a lengthwise slot parallel to the respective groove to define an inner tab adjacent to said groove and an outer tab on the respective sidewall, said link body having coupling portions for interlocking with other link bodies.
 3. The link according to claim 2 wherein the two branches formed by said grooves on each of said opposite sidewalls of the link body each include a lengthwise slot parallel to the grooves thereby defining two inner tabs adjacent to each groove and four outer tabs.
 4. The link according to claim 3 wherein said link body is a substantially rectangular body, said grooves and tabs being formed in two opposite sidewalls of the link body and said outer tabs constituting parts of two other opposite sidewalls of the link body. 